ESSEX >> What’s the real story behind the painting by Carel Fabritius that inspired Donna Tartt’s bestselling book, The Goldfinch, or of Vermeer’s equally famous Girl With The Pearl Earring?

Join Conn College Professor Robert Baldwin as he explores the unique blend of humble subjects and high aestheticism in Dutch Baroque art typified by these masterpieces, as well as the mysterious still life paintings of Willen Kalf, in a talk at the Essex Library on Thursday July 10 at 7 p.m.

As the only country in seventeenth-century Europe where ordinary citizens ruled themselves, the Netherlands favored an art of everyday Dutch life. Most Dutch Baroque art depicted local, Dutch landscapes, cityscapes, portraits, still-life objects, and scenes of daily life, both urban and rustic.

To raise these mundane subjects to the high level of “Art,” a few Dutch artists such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Fabritius, and Kalf developed hyper-aesthetic styles featuring dramatic light, poetic color, and abstract brushwork.

Get to know these works and the movement that spawned them in this illustrated talk, which is free and open to all. This lecture is sponsored by a generous grant from the Community Foundation of Middlesex County. The Library is at 33 West Avenue; to register for this program or for more information, please call the Essex Library at 860-767-1560.